- A poll set up in Germany about whether respondents would buy a Tesla is making waves.
- At first, it indicated a consumer shift away from the brand, and then it mysteriously flipped.
- It appears that over 250,000 votes came from just two IP addresses in the U.S.
Tesla and Elon Musk are under the microscope these days—and it’s not just in the United States. Germany’s been taking a long, hard look at the company and its colorful CEO, with a recent online poll showing that a staggering 94 percent of Germans wouldn’t touch a Tesla with a ten-foot pole. But, surprise, surprise—just days later, the poll results started flipping, with the people behind it claiming the results might have been manipulated.
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Carscoops recently covered the German survey from T-Online, and the results weren’t exactly flattering for Musk. Just 3 percent of over 100,000 respondents said they’d consider buying a Tesla, following Musk’s awkward Nazi-like salute and his very public support for a right-wing party in Germany. Not exactly a shining moment for his PR team.
Poll Results Take a Wild Turn
A week later, the number of people voting in the still-open poll had surged to over 467,500, with an astonishing 70 percent saying they’d consider buying a Tesla. T-Online investigated the sudden jump and discovered that 253,000 of the votes came from just two IP addresses in the USA.
The publication plainly stated, “This suggests that the survey may have been manipulated.” But the suspected manipulation didn’t end there.
T-Online also found that the survey had been shared thousands of times on X, including one notable post by Elon Musk himself, after the results turned positive. His post alone garnered around 2.8 million views on X within just two hours. The German outlet reported that by Tuesday night, several hundred people were responding to the survey every minute. With the true origin of the votes in question, the survey was ultimately shut down.
Manipulated or Just a Coincidence?
We should be clear that there’s no direct link between Musk and the swing in the poll at this time. However, the details provided by T-Online suggest that someone, or some group, may have manipulated the results. It’s hard to ignore the possibility that Musk’s loyal followers on X, where he’s basically an unofficial king, might have added to the noise, especially after his post.
In fact, many of you pointed out flaws in the survey during our initial coverage. As one reader put it: “It’s not an independent survey that sampled participants voters randomly. Everybody can take it. As often as they want.” They even included a screenshot showing the state of the poll at that moment. Clearly, the data source could use a bit of cleaning up.
